'Star Trek: Discovery' Has an Explanation for Why Spock Never Mentioned His Sister

Star Trek: Discovery revealed that the iconic Vulcan character Spock, the first officer from the original Star Trek, had a sister that he never mentioned in any of the crew's many adventures. Not just a sister, but a human, adopted sister named Michael Burnham who just happened to start a war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.

Fans have been trying to wrap their head around how to reconcile this with canon, or if it can be reconciled. Sonequa Martin-Green, who plays Burnham on Discovery, assures fans that there is a reason.

"Alex Kurtzman, who helped create the show with Bryan Fuller, who obviously worked very closely with JJ [Abrams]. for his franchise of Star Trek films, said, 'I know a lot of people are asking why he didn't ever mention her,'" Martin-Green recalled in an interview with Deadline. "He was like, 'Trust us. There will be an explanation.'"

When that explanation will be revealed is still unknown, but Star Trek: Discovery's producers, including Kurtzman, have said that the second season will establish how the prequel fits into existing Star Trek canon.

Martin-Green says that these kinds of continuity conflicts are to be expected when you're setting an ongoing series in the middle of a universe's history.

"That's what happens when you come into this time period where you're couched between two iterations," Martin-Green says. "There's a lot of those things where you can only go so far, or you have to find loops or whatever, as it surfaces in the story. We are so canon-specific and canon-compliant, and the moments where we are not, there is a reason for it.

"There are so many nuggets and Easter eggs," she continues. "One that I actually didn't know about when we were shooting, but I found out later, is that in Captain Georgiou's ready room, in either the Pilot or Episode 2, she has a bottle of Chateau Picard wine. What Picard says in [Star Trek: The Next Generation] is that he comes from a lineage of winemakers hundreds of years ago. There's things like that everywhere."

Star Trek: Discovery has already gone a ways towards correcting one perceived continuity error. The in Star Trek: Discovery premiere, Michael Burnham mutinies against her captain, Philippa Georgiou. This seemed to conflict with what Spock told Chekov in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Tholian Web," when he notes that there is "Absolute no record" of a mutiny taking place on a Starfleet vessel. However, in the Star Trek: Discovery Season One finale, Burnham's mutiny is purged from her record and her rank is restored, making Spock's comment technically true.

The first season of Star Trek: Discovery is available to stream in its entirety on CBS All Access in the United States, through CraveTV in Canada, and through Netflix in other international markets. Star Trek: Discovery Season Two is now filming in Toronto.